Curtis – Thinking Lens

Another helpful piece of a way to approach reflective practice is to have a protocol for thinking. Margie Carter and I developed this thinking lens as a protocol for what to think about, not necessarily an answer for what to do but what things are useful to think about. The very first one was this idea of knowing yourself. That’s the first element of the thinking lens, that you are the person with all the power in that room. You’re the grown up. You decide when the lights are on or off, you decide what toys are going to be on the table. You decide who you’re going to pay attention to and how you’re going to pay attention to them. So, as the adult in the room you really have to know who are you and what are you bringing here, what are your hot buttons, what are your blind spots, what do you love? 

The second one-you need to look for children’s competence. That when you’re watching a situation you try to find the underneath competence-even in the most challenging behaviours children are showing you they understand something, they’re trying to figure something out and it may be they’re doing it in a way that isn’t useful for them or for other people but it is showing you that they’re thinking through something.  

So, even in the most challenging circumstance you find that competence and that – because that’s what you’re going to want to take up. People don’t grow from things they don’t know and don’t know how to do. They grow from what they know and what they understand. So, you’re going to be more likely to offer something to this child that will help them grow if you see they’re competent. If you don’t think they’re competent you don’t offer. Right, if you know that they can’t do that you don’t bother. Or oh, they’re just going to hit people so you just remove them from a situation. But if you see, oh wow there’s something going on here- I’m meeting up with their mind, not their behaviour, what their goal is and I always try to see it in the best light. I try not to think of it as their bad behaviour. That, so – this is their best light, they’re really able to express their big feelings right, even if it may seem difficult for everybody.  

And then the third part of the thinking lens, which I don’t think people think about very often is how do we figure out the child’s point of view here? We’re always thinking about our own point of view, we think about the parent’s point of view but we rarely think about how is the child seeing this situation? We’re always trying to do something, to fix them or teach them or offer them; rather than, how could we get into their space and maybe see the world like they do? 

I try to like- what might they be seeing that I don’t see? What might they be experiencing when they – like I had this little guy that poured pebbles over his head after he spent a long time exploring them. And I was like whoa, like what is that about for him, like what might his face be noticing, his body be noticing, what might he be hearing? And it just gave me a whole different view. So, that’s another part of this thinking lens is to think about what’s the child’s perspective here and to try as much as you can to think about that and to delight in it.  

And then there’s always looking at what’s – how is the environment, both the physical environment and the social and emotional environment impacting this situation?  And I’m an environment teacher, that’s what I spend a lot of time thinking about, how I’ve set things up, every inch, every material, I think about what’s this communicating? How do I organize and create an orderly beautiful space so children can see what’s available. What are all the possibilities? So, when children are in the environment and things are happening, I want to really look at that. So, what did this material suggest they do, how did they use it, was it how I thought they would? Was it something different? How is this space contributing to, you know, maybe some conflict or cooperation. So you can look really closely at those details of the environment and the materials. And then the social, emotional milieu as well, sort of when I go into classrooms where children are regimental a lot there’s a really different way that children are. And so you can see that in the social, emotional environment. So, that’s a really important one. 

And then what are other perspectives that I might take is the-another part of the thinking- the fifth part. How can I think about child development and learning theory, brain development, how can I call on that to analyze the situation? How can I think about family’s points of view and cultural references and frameworks, like how is that influencing the situation, which is hugely important. I’ve been thinking more that we need to pull that out instead of have it just be in the multiple perspective piece. What are my co-workers thoughts about this, how does licensing think about this? So there’s so many frames that you can take up to think about and deepen your own understanding of these unfolding moments so that’s the multiple perspective piece.  

And then finally the last one is how can I – what action might I take based on these things I thought about? Now obviously you can’t contemplate your navel in these moments and go through all of these things every time. But if you do it away from those situations, like you capture documentation or photos or moments and think it through then you’ll have more of a repertoire of possibility when you are in those moments with kids. So, that’s what I recommend that you look at this thinking lens, that you practice it over and over and over again. And you don’t have to do every one every time. You can decide which part of the thinking lens do I want to think about in this situation? But it’s just a helpful tool for really disciplining your thinking because we don’t have a lot of time in early childhood. And so when we do have time for reflection I think we should use it well and use it with a disciplined focus. But really reflective practice is about thinking more systematically about the problems and the things that are happening. And then making decisions based on your values, right? Then you can say well, what do we want to have happen, so what are we going to do? So, in a nutshell, I think that was a nutshell, that’s what the thinking lens is.